


Heartbreak

by evilwriter37



Series: Whumptober 2020 [19]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Grief, Mourning, Shock, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27100369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilwriter37/pseuds/evilwriter37
Summary: Hiccup feels awful going to the feast to celebrate him as chief. He’s still in shock over Stoick’s death.
Series: Whumptober 2020 [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947739
Comments: 6
Kudos: 21





	Heartbreak

Hiccup didn’t want to go into the Mead Hall. Berk was having a feast to celebrate him as chief, and he just didn’t want to go. What was there to celebrate when his father was dead and gone? Granted, they were supposed to celebrate the dead, but Hiccup didn’t know how. He’d never had a death this close to him before. 

Toothless nudged Hiccup, then nodded at the doors of the Mead Hall. Then he nuzzled against him. Toothless would be there for him. He could do this. 

Hiccup went into the Mead Hall. At first, no one noticed him, just like old times, but then, someone shouted his name and a cheer went up. Hiccup wanted to make himself smaller, but instead he forced a smile on his face and waved. 

There was a table set on the dais for him, and all his friends were there, including Eret and Valka. Hiccup made his way there, and Tuffnut rose and slapped him on the back. “Good to have you with us, my good sir,” he said. 

Hiccup sat at the head of the table. Luckily, it wasn’t in a throne. He didn’t feel like he could take Stoick’s throne, felt like he had to have one of his own made. He would just look silly in a seat that was too big to have been made for him. 

“You look cheery,” Astrid said sarcastically, handing Hiccup a drink. Hiccup began heaping food onto his plate. He wasn’t hungry, but he would eat anyway. 

Hiccup sighed. “I just don’t feel like we have anything to celebrate.”

Valka, who sat on the other side of Hiccup, put a hand on his shoulder. “Son, we have plenty to celebrate. Your father would have wanted us to.”

Hiccup nodded, wiping tears from his eyes. His mother was right. Still, he was in shock. He hadn’t  _ expected  _ to lose Stoick. It had all been so sudden. One day they weren’t fighting a war with Drago Bludvist, and the next they were and Stoick had been killed. Hiccup couldn’t help feeling like it was his fault. If he hadn’t gone to talk to Drago…

Maybe if he ate he wouldn’t cry. He began stuffing food in his face very uncharacteristically, trying to keep his tears in. No one noticed his change in character. Or, if they did, they said nothing. That was best. 

  
  


Hiccup’s house was empty when he got home. He felt better now that he was free from his friends, free from the crowd. He sat down heavily at the table, hung his head. Toothless looked at him mournfully.

“I-I-I can’t believe he’s gone,” Hiccup stammered. Tears were coming now. Lots of them. “I can’t believe he’s gone!” 

And Hiccup cried like he hadn’t cried before. He hadn’t had time to cry over this, and he’d been in too much shock to do so, but now he could. Seeing that empty throne had really made it all sink in. His father was gone. Forever. 

Hiccup felt his heart breaking all over again. It had broken the day Stoick had died, and now those pieces were cracking like old pottery. 

Toothless came forward, put his head in Hiccup’s lap, and Hiccup hugged him as he cried. Some part of him wanted to try to push him away, but he didn’t. This was the only comfort he was going to get at the moment. 

Hiccup didn’t know how long he cried for, but he was done by the time Valka was entering the house. She’d moved in with him immediately following Stoick’s death and her return to Berk. It was good to have someone else with him, but it just wasn’t the same. Her presence was so different from Stoick’s. 

“Feeling a little better?” she asked, looking at Hiccup’s red-rimmed eyes and puffy nose.

“Yeah,” Hiccup got out hoarsely. Crying had lifted a little something from his shoulders, had mended his heart a little bit. He knew his heart would break many more times in the next few months, but for now, it was put back together a little. 


End file.
